As far as weekends go, they don't come any bigger for the Stena Line Belfast Giants than a home doubleheader against the top of the table Cardiff Devils.

With just three points separating them in the standings, in what is now more or less a two horse race for the Elite League title, the two games on Friday and Saturday (both 7pm face-offs) will be vital to who wins the league.

Win both and the Giants overtake the Devils at the top, share the points and it's as you were.

Lose, and the task becomes extremely difficult.

That, however, is not crossing the Giants' minds as they refocus from a 9-5 defeat to Fife last Sunday in order to take down Cardiff and finally overtake them at the top for a full week.

On top of that there's also the small matter of revenge after the Devils inflicted a heavy 5-1 defeat on the Giants at the SSE Arena last week in the second leg of their Challenge Cup semi-final.

The home side will have to navigate the first game on Friday without captain Adam Keefe, who has been given a one match ban for instigating a fight in the last minute of the game in Fife.

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Leading points scorer Colin Shields says the team are hurting after Sunday's surprise defeat, but declares they're determined to bounce back in a big way.

"We got away from what had been making us successful - playing as a team," the Scottish forward admits. "We know we are not going to win every game every season, though the loss hurt a lot of guys.

"Everyone on the team is upset about Sunday's performance and we are looking to bounce back hard this weekend.

"We are right back to work this week and focused on the task at hand. If we want to win the league then we are going to have to play well against Cardiff and try to take maximum points as many times as we can, starting this week with two big games at home."

Matt Nickerson (Image: William Cherry/Presseye)

Defenceman Matt Nickerson backed up Shields' claims and acknowledged that the Giants will have to be a lot better to overcome a Cardiff team who have controlled the Elite League for more or less the entire season.

With just 11 regular season games left - Cardiff have 12 - time is rapidly running out for Belfast to make a move into first, however, crucially, four of those 11 are against their top two rivals.

Before last week the Giants were on a run where they won 20 from 24, and Nickerson reveals that in training this week they have focused on returning to how they played during that period.

"There are not that many games left, and in order to get to first place, we need to go through Cardiff," Nickerson admitted. "The four games against them are going to make or break our season.

"This week we have been talking about getting back to 'Giants hockey' - simply hockey, chipping pucks and outworking teams. We are going to need that this weekend going against Cardiff who work hard and are super skilled.”

Tickets are on sale now for both Friday's and Saturday's games against the Cardiff Devils and are available online via Ticketmaster , all Ticketmaster Outlets, the Arena Box Office in person or over the phone by calling 028 9073 9074.